Former Dulwich pupil says Farage told him: ‘That’s the way back to Africa’ | Nigel Farage

A former Dulwich university student who claimed a young girl named Nigel Farage told her “this is the way back to Africa” has said she felt compelled to speak out after the Reform leader attempted to “deny or ignore” the pain of his alleged targets.

Yinka Bankole, who claimed the 17-year-old had just started school when Farage abused her, said she decided to tell her full story after watching the Reform leader’s press conference on Thursday.

Farage told reporters he had never been a racist or “malicious” anti-Semite. Instead, he launched a tirade on the BBC and ITV questioning him about the Guardian’s ongoing investigation into past allegations of antisemitism and racism.

Are You Being Served? He quotes television programs including. and It Ain’t Half Hot Mom, Farage accused the BBC of “double standards and hypocrisy”, which he vowed to boycott, and claimed he had a case to answer over ITV’s broadcast of comedian Bernard Manning in the 1970s.

Bankole, whose parents were nurses and osteopaths who came to the UK from Nigeria in the 1950s, said he found it “the most shockingly hypocritical example of ‘let him without sin cast the first stone'” and added: “It was also the final straw.”

He said: “I attended this school for a year between 1980 and 1981, starting when I was just nine years old. At that time, I was in the third year (JC) of a very large college with lower, middle and upper schools for ages nine to 18. My hard-working parents celebrated with pictures, as proud parents do when their child has the privilege of attending such a respected educational institution.”

“I remember it took a while but one day Farage and at least one other person saw me in the secondary school playground. He was about 17 years old.

“He towered over me. ‘Where are you from?’ he asked. “A few seconds after I gave my rather confusing and stuttering answers, he replied clearly: ‘This is the way to Africa’ and with an accompanying hand gesture he pointed somewhere in the distance.”

Bankole, a 54-year-old engineer, said that “once his presence as a target was established” Farage would “wait at the gates of the lower school where I dropped me off to repeat this vulgarity”.

He said he would always remember what he described as “the hateful look he had towards me, seemingly just for existing.”

“Not knowing my name, he was just looking at me with an expression that didn’t seem to appreciate my humanity and just because of my appearance,” Bankole said.

Farage has variously claimed that comments that were “joking” more than four decades ago could be seen as bigotry today, but that he never made them “directly” to anyone or “with the intention of hurting”.

Bankole added: “I’ll leave it to the reader to decide whether this was ‘malicious or non-malicious,’ ‘intentional or non-intentional,’ ‘direct or non-direct.’ I know how I experienced it. It certainly felt malicious to me.”

Bankole is one of 28 school contemporaries of Farage who claim to have witnessed deeply offensive racist or anti-Semitic behavior from Farage at Dulwich College, a state school in south-east London.

He had previously spoken to the Guardian on condition of anonymity but decided to put his name to the story because he was angry at Farage’s reaction.

A lawyer acting for Reform had “categorically denied” that Farage had “engaged in, condoned or led racist or anti-Semitic behavior” when the allegations were first reported to the party by the Guardian.

Farage later admitted he may have said things “jokingly” at school that would be seen differently today, but denied saying anything “directly” racist or antisemitic to anyone.

On Thursday, Farage denied saying anything racist “in bad faith”. He repeatedly suggested that the allegations were politically motivated and questioned whether it would be possible to recall events in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Bankole said that he has voted for more than one party throughout his life and is not a member of any political party.

“Farage suggested that it was absolutely inconceivable that anyone could remember such events that took place more than forty years ago,” Bankole said. “I just want to ask: Can the victim of such abuse forget? I know I haven’t. Every time I see him on TV, I remember his walk as the same walk that was approaching me.”

“Looking back, maybe it was a fluke that I left after a year. High school tuition was a contributing factor, as was my family moving. The thought that if I were there the next year, the bully would have even more authority, terrifies me. The possibility that he would have even more authority than that in a few years is a truly chilling thought.”